Catholic Church under fire for costly homes

Apr. 14, 2014

Written by

Jim Walsh

Courier-Post

HEAVENLY HOMES

$500,000 Bishop Dennis Sullivan’s 20-room manor in Woodbury $2,200,000 Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s newly built mansion in Atlanta $43,000,000 Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst’s residence and improvements in Germany Pope Francis may have ignited the debate over residences for high-ranking clergymen when he became pope in March 2013 and declined to occupy the papal apartments in a Vatican palace.

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Before moving to South Jersey one year ago, Bishop Dennis Sullivan lived in a Manhattan mansion with a chair reserved exclusively for a visiting pope.

Sullivan, now leader of the Diocese of Camden, is again in a mansion — but this one has the church leader on a hot seat.

Critics have assailed Sullivan’s decision to spend $500,000 for a Woodbury estate, a 20-room manor known as Rugby Pines once used by the president of Rowan University.

They assert the money would be better spent helping the needy, and say the bishop should seek a more humble home.

Sullivan is not alone.

Controversies have flared recently over church leaders’ pricey homes in the Atlanta and Newark dioceses. And Pope Francis removed a German bishop from his post last month after the cleric spent the equivalent of $43 million for a new residence and related improvements.

Indeed, Francis may have ignited the debate over residences for high-ranking clergymen when he became pope in March 2013 and declined to occupy the papal apartments in a Vatican palace. He lives instead in a guest house.

“I think Pope Francis has challenged us all to look more closely at the way we are as a church — our priorities, our sensibilities, the choices we make,” noted Greg Kandra, a former TV journalist who now blogs about church activities as a deacon with the Diocese of Brooklyn. “The controversies about where bishops live and how they live are part of that.”

A similar view came from Archbishop Wilton Gregory in Atlanta, who faced an angry backlash over a new home valued at $2.2 million.

Gregory said the house, built with donated funds, could be justified “fiscally, logistically and practically.” But the Georgia bishop acknowledged he failed to consider the cost “in terms of my own integrity and pastoral credibility.”

“What we didn’t stop to consider ... was that the world and the church have changed,” the apologetic bishop said.

Gregory announced plans this month to sell his 6,400-square-foot mansion “and invest the proceeds from that sale into the needs of the Catholic community.”

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But while Gregory thanked his critics, church leaders in the Diocese of Newark have fired back at foes of a planned $500,000 expansion at a retirement home for Archbishop John Myers.

Co-adjutor Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who is expected to succeed Myers, has decried criticism of the project as “sensationalism” and “distractions.”

The North Jersey diocese in February issued a response to media reports on the controversy, alleging “a number of misrepresentations” in news coverage and “numerous errors and mistakes” in readers’ online comments.

In a March 17 op-ed in The (Bergen County) Record, Hebda described Myers as “a generous shepherd who works tirelessly for his flock” and noted the retiring cleric had lived for 13 years in a rectory in Newark — “in a ZIP code that few would consider enviable.”

Critics responded by noting the financial plight of parochial schools and bringing up the topic of clergy sex abuse. And an online petition asking the Newark Archdiocese to scrap the expansion plan has drawn more than 21,000 signatures, according to Faithful America, a Christian activist group.

The disputes show the need for modern bishops to have strong skills as communicators, according to Rocco Palmo, a Philadelphia-based blogger who writes on the Catholic Church.

“If you don’t communicate well, you’re setting yourself up for people being furious.”

In announcing the Camden Diocese purchase in December, spokesman Peter Feuerherd said the Woodbury house for Sullivan provides “needed work space, and room for meetings, that the quarters in Blackwood just didn’t have,” and noted $395,000 for the acquisition came from the sale of another home owned by the diocese.

Feuerherd declined to comment for this story. Sullivan, who has led the diocese since February 2013, has not talked publicly on the issue.

Local Catholics unhappy with the bishop’s purchase of the home also fault his handling of the controversy.

“I am saddened that Bishop Sullivan has chosen to not address this ... as it has become a much talked about subject within the church walls,” said Michelle Alexander of Clementon.

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She added the home’s purchase “was not a sound investment” at a time of parish mergers and church closings.

Michael DiClaudio described the diocesan response to the controversy as “disappointing.” He suggested the bishop could convert the house into “something meaningful, such as a rehabilitation center for victims of domestic abuse (or) a homeless shelter for the poor and forgotten.

“I think most Catholics would agree that this is what they would like to see their church tithes spent on,” DiClaudio added, “not fancy living quarters for the religious of our church.”

The Glassboro resident said the dispute has made him more aware of his own need to help others, but that he’s also changed his charitable activities.

“I have ceased contributing any money to the weekly collection that goes to the diocese. Nor have I contributed to the bishop’s (current) annual appeal for the House of Charity,” DiClaudio added.

That annual appeal has consisted of videotaped messages from Sullivan during Sunday Masses.

“I cannot, with a clear conscience, tithe to this diocese until the hypocrisy has been dissolved,” DiClaudio said.

DiClaudio said he now directs donations to St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Camden, “where the priests work tirelessly towards building a better city for the residents.”

But the Rev. Carmel Polidano, pastor of St. Rita of Cascia Parish in Bellmawr, said critics are distorting the bishop’s actions.

“The word ‘mansion’ has to be taken away,” explained Polidano, contending a $500,000 property hardly passes for palatial in South Jersey. “It’s a big house.”

The pastor, who compared Sullivan’s temporary quarters to a motel, said the Woodbury house would help the bishop oversee the six-county diocese that includes Cumberland, Gloucester, Atlantic and Salem.

“He needs a home where he can continue his ministry,” said Polidano, adding Sullivan will share the home with two other priests. “A lot of work is done in the evening.”

Polidano also asserted withholding donations from the diocese would only hurt charitable activities.

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“If people say that money is going to the bishop, that’s not true,” he noted. “Why don’t we use the energy of criticizing to see what we can do to help the church?”

Palmo said church officials “didn’t do a good job of explaining” the need for the Woodbury house. But he also saw compelling reasons for the purchase of the 6,000-square-foot building, constructed in 1908.

Camden’s bishop traditionally occupied an imposing home until Sullivan’s predecessor, Bishop Joseph Galante, moved into a single-story retreat facility for health reasons. That residence was sold as part of the Woodbury transaction.

“A bishop’s home is almost a public facility,” said Palmo, adding residences often are used for catered receptions, meetings and other events.

Sullivan, who was the No. 2 administrator in the Archdiocese of New York, formerly shared a four-story Madison Avenue mansion with Cardinal Timothy Dolan and other city clergymen.

That art- and antique-filled building includes reception and office space, as well as a private entrance to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and an imposing chair set aside for a visiting pontiff.

“People would rather get an invitation to the bishop’s home than come to his office,” said Palmo, author of the blog Whispers in the Loggia. “It really does help with fundraising.”

The blogger also said the bishop’s move could help the diocese financially, because Sullivan’s former home at the Spiritual Life Center in Blackwood is being razed to make way for a Catholic cemetery.

“The diocese stands to make millions off that,” predicted Palmo, noting several Catholic graveyards are close to capacity in the Philadelphia area.

He also observed the Woodbury home, vacant for two years and once priced at $800,000, received extensive improvements before its sale.

“If anything, the house is going to end up being a bargain,” Palmo said.

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